Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of media rendering devices, and, more particularly, to discovering and controlling multiple media rendering devices that use different networking protocols.
While Universal Plug and Play/Digital Living Network Alliance (UPnP/DLNA) is a protocol used by various media players or renderers, there are a number of other networking alternatives to UPnP/DLNA such as Orb's CAB protocol, AllJoyn, Wi-Fi Direct, etc. It is often the case that a home may have multiple media rendering devices from different manufacturers that conform to different media rendering control protocols. For example, a network may include an Orb media player, a UPnP/DLNA compliant television and a media server to serve content to the player and the television. In such cases multiple media rendering controllers are typically used to play media, one for the Orb media player and one for the UPnP/DLNA compliant television. As the number of media rendering devices using different control protocols grows, the more difficult and impractical it can become for a user to operate the media rendering devices due to the number of different media rendering controllers that may need to be used.